By Daniel Brettig
May 19th 2008 @ 7:13am
Crows thumping of Melbourne signifies nothing: Craig
Impressive as it looked, Adelaide’s 76-point thumping of AFL basement dwellers Melbourne proved little in terms of the Crows’ standing compared to the three teams above them on the ladder.
Coach Neil Craig admitted as much when he reviewed a 22.18 (150) to 11.8 (74) win at AAMI Stadium over a Demons side that was simply outclassed by greater skill, structure and running capacity.
Melbourne began in hopeful fashion and pressured Adelaide for periods of the first quarter, but the rest of the match was played almost exclusively in the Crows’ attacking half.
The final margin, though, should have been greater.
In the third term Adelaide fired through a profligate 3.9, best afield Brett Burton (five goals) guilty of not using all his opportunities.
“We’re a long way away from Geelong, Hawthorn and perhaps the Western Bulldogs,” Craig said.
“Even today, even though we ended up having a 12-goal win, there were times in that game when we lost all our power and our drive towards the goal.
“So a win like that covers a multitude of sins that we’re acutely aware of.
“We just need to keep our heads down, our tails up and just continue to improve each week, which I think we are, slowly but surely.”
Kurt Tippett (four goals) enjoyed his first outing as a fulltime forward, while Jason Porplyzia (three), Simon Goodwin (three) and Luke Jericho (three) also had a merry time in attack.
They capitalised on the delivery of a midfield led by Bernie Vince, Chris Knights and Nathan van Berlo.
Graham Johncock, Nathan Bock and Scott Stevens mopped up whatever scraps came their way in defence.
Tippett’s performance was probably the most important aspect of the victory, however the Crows’ three talls – Tippett, Jon Griffin and the recalled Ivan Maric – will need to cope with far sterner tests than this.
Melbourne’s best efforts came from Daniel Bell and Jeff White, Cale Morton managing three goals.
The trial of the new interchange protocol was not always smooth, the Crows reduced to 17 men at one point in the second term as player-driven rotations caught out bench officials.
Both sides had made late changes, young Crow Jarrhan Jacky subbed in for Kris Massie while Paul Johnson filed in for Melbourne at the expense of Jared Rivers.
The first quarter proved an open affair, the Demons holding their own in general play but falling down in defence.
They had only one less scoring shot than the home side in the first, but a return of 8.1 to 4.4 accurately reflected Adelaide’s ability to penetrate deep into the forward line at speed without being pressed wide.
Adelaide were unable to score with quite that level of freedom again until the last term, partly due to their wastefulness but also through the pressure applied intermittently by Melbourne.
Demons coach Dean Bailey said his team’s rousing win over Fremantle two weeks ago was now well and truly consigned to history.
“The game against Fremantle the first half was poor, the second half was good, but the Fremantle game is now gone, that’s now history,” he said.
“We’ve been beaten today by a very good footy club who move the ball particularly well on the turnover and they were good at the stoppage, we didn’t work hard enough inside and we’ve got to take that away and get better.”
Bailey was able to take some solace from Morton’s goals and also Austin Wonaeamirri’s solid follow-up to his AFL rising star-winning performance against the Dockers.
Kicking one goal and setting up a handful of others, Wonaeamirri also caught the eye with his tackling.
“He’s going to be a good player for us, Aussie, and obviously with the game before he’s going to get more attention and have players playing more closely to him but he’s one for the future,” said Bailey.
“Cale Morton kicked three and his decision at the end of the game to switch the ball to see Cameron Bruce would suggest he’s a good decision-maker and going to be a very good player for us.”
Clint Bartram was another Demon to show some light at the end of the tunnel by applying a solid if not always successful tag to Andrew McLeod.
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